A growing dream

Won Yang checks out some of the Japanese maple trees that will be planted in his botanical garden, which he is creating on a former golf course in South Kitsap.Staff photo by Carolyn J. Yaschur

Won Yang describes his vision for the botanical garden he is creating on the site of the old Clover Valley Golf Course in Port Orchard.Staff photo by Carolyn J. Yaschur

A 92-acre botanical garden at the former Clover Valley Golf Course in South Kitsap resides in Won Yang's mind.

He's inviting the public to come see how much of that vision he's converted to reality since he bought the course two years ago. He'll have an April 16 open house at the site on Country Club Way.

The 56-year-old Yang also operates Yang's Nursery and Landscaping on 6 acres on Peacock Hill in Gig Harbor. His Long Lake site is strewn with trees and plantings from the Gig Harbor location, many in the ground, others in containers, waiting to be planted.

He will have 400 different varieties of Japanese maple, he said, most of which are there today. He expects most of them to have leafed out in time for the open house.

Hardy windmill palms from China decorate his entrance and surround what by summer will be his palm garden, available for weddings. There are rhododendrons, garden bonsai pines, magnolias and a rich variety of other plants with colorful foliage. Virginia creepers will be trained up a pair of Douglas firs to provide a canopy

Perhaps next year, he expects to begin charging admission to tour his grounds, which will feature gardens in a variety of styles, and water features. Those will include a large waterfall that will cascade down the hill that used to be Clover Valley's No 8 green and No. 9 tee. A pagoda also will be built on the hill, offering a vista that includes the entire garden.

He has no master plan on paper. He and his general manager Steve Melton and their staff of seven work from Yang's instructions. His timetable depends on the availability of money.

The golf course was in rough shape when he bought it for $550,000 in 2003, he said, and the clubhouse was even worse.

Vandals, weather and ants had taken a harsh toll. Vandals had ruined just about every interior wall in the clubhouse, there were ants everywhere and rain blown from the south had rotted much of the outside deck. Underbrush and blackberries fouled the course.

The clubhouse is restored now and available for rental. It also will provide a backup facility for when rains fall on the outdoor weddings he wants to be a key component of his operation.

Cleaning up the course led to a bonanza of old golf balls —"thousands of them," said Melton. "Every time you plant a tree, you'll pull a golf ball up."

Yang said they have kept them, scrubbed them to remove the dirt, and will have them on display at the clubhouse in time.

There are other animals that do get in, many of them welcomed, like birds, Yang said. They also have rabbits that nibble on his irrigation lines. Deer and coyote appear.

Yang is in the nursery business, so the plants at the gardens are as much for sale as those in the retail area close to the road.

"If you see it in the ground, you can buy it," says Melton, a 1974 South Kitsap High School graduate who says he's been in the nursery and landscaping business his whole life.

Yang and his wife, Kim, have two daughters, one at Washington State University and the other studying to be a doctor at Johns Hopkins University.

Kim is warming to his dream project, Yang said, though she worries about when some money might flow in rather than just out. It also has cost their house near Purdy some of its landscaping. Many of the windmill palms lay along his driveway before being dug up and planted at the gardens.

"Some people think I'm crazy," Yang says, "they say to slow down. But I'm going the other way. I love plants and I don't mind working hard. This is my job to do."

SPECIAL EVENTS Sundquist Nursery will hold its Harvest Daze open garden event from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at 3809 NE Sawdust Hill Road, Poulsbo. They offer plants for sale on limited open days to defray the cost of maintaining the gardens. Several ... [Read More...]